Roughly 20 or so years ago, when my sickness of rifle shooting began, I purchased a slightly used Winchester model 70 heavy varmint rifle chambered in .22-250 Remington for approximately $450 from a local gun shop. The rifle was fantastic! It came with a Bell & Carlson black synthetic stock, hinged floor plate & heavy contour stainless steel barrel with a black action. I thought I hit the lottery since the rifle was almost brand new!
At the time, I just turned 18 & really didn't make much money since I was a full time college student & only worked worked part time in a pizzeria. Eventually I saved enough money to invest in a Harris bipod, a Nikon Monarch 6.5-20x44mm optic, some RCBS dies so I could load on my fathers press & enough reloading components to get started. I quickly learned the in's & out's of reloading through trial & error. Eventually, I got the load down & this rifle quickly began shooting EXTREMELY tight groups! I couldn't believe how accurate this off the shelf, discounted, throw back shot.. Over the next few years, I shot more ground hogs, coyotes, foxes & crows than I could count with this rifle.
As the years flew by & my ongoing desire to fill my safe with Gradous custom rifles took precedence, I glanced over at the old neglected Winchester .22-250 one afternoon as it hid in the back of the safe and thought it would be nice to upgrade this little shooter since I will never sell it because it was my first.
I ordered a McMillan A3 Sporter in McMillan camo, a PTG DBM, an ATLAS bipod, Jewel trigger, Leupold MKIV rings & base & sent the barreled action off to Robert Gradous for a Cerakote job in (my favorite color) flat dark earth..
As the months passed, I started receiving the components to really make this rifle shine.. As of yesterday, I had everything in my little shop to get this project underway, so I went to work.
I ran into a few problems which were quickly resolved with the mini mill & a grinder. If anyone is thinking of doing something similar to this with a Model 70, FYI, the area in the front of the trigger guard needs to be milled out if you are going to use a Jewell trigger. If you are considering using a PTG DBM, the bolt release needs to be cut down significantly in order for the bolt to retract far enough to pick up a round from the magazine.
McMillan didn't have a program for the inlet of the PTG DBM for Winchesters so I had to send the DBM to them. Since the bottom metal was with McMillan while my barreled action was in Gradous' shop getting Cerakoted, I decided I would attempt to Cerakote the small parts myself with Cerakote C series.
I learned that bedding a Winchester model 70 is a bit more entailed than bedding a Remington 700 style action, but it I was fortunate to have the guidance & pro tips from the big man down in Georgia and quickly finished the job.
Without further a due here are a few pics of the PIG wearing lipstick! (I wish I would have taken some before pics, but most of you know what a stock Win Heavy Varmint looks like)
At the time, I just turned 18 & really didn't make much money since I was a full time college student & only worked worked part time in a pizzeria. Eventually I saved enough money to invest in a Harris bipod, a Nikon Monarch 6.5-20x44mm optic, some RCBS dies so I could load on my fathers press & enough reloading components to get started. I quickly learned the in's & out's of reloading through trial & error. Eventually, I got the load down & this rifle quickly began shooting EXTREMELY tight groups! I couldn't believe how accurate this off the shelf, discounted, throw back shot.. Over the next few years, I shot more ground hogs, coyotes, foxes & crows than I could count with this rifle.
As the years flew by & my ongoing desire to fill my safe with Gradous custom rifles took precedence, I glanced over at the old neglected Winchester .22-250 one afternoon as it hid in the back of the safe and thought it would be nice to upgrade this little shooter since I will never sell it because it was my first.
I ordered a McMillan A3 Sporter in McMillan camo, a PTG DBM, an ATLAS bipod, Jewel trigger, Leupold MKIV rings & base & sent the barreled action off to Robert Gradous for a Cerakote job in (my favorite color) flat dark earth..
As the months passed, I started receiving the components to really make this rifle shine.. As of yesterday, I had everything in my little shop to get this project underway, so I went to work.
I ran into a few problems which were quickly resolved with the mini mill & a grinder. If anyone is thinking of doing something similar to this with a Model 70, FYI, the area in the front of the trigger guard needs to be milled out if you are going to use a Jewell trigger. If you are considering using a PTG DBM, the bolt release needs to be cut down significantly in order for the bolt to retract far enough to pick up a round from the magazine.
McMillan didn't have a program for the inlet of the PTG DBM for Winchesters so I had to send the DBM to them. Since the bottom metal was with McMillan while my barreled action was in Gradous' shop getting Cerakoted, I decided I would attempt to Cerakote the small parts myself with Cerakote C series.
I learned that bedding a Winchester model 70 is a bit more entailed than bedding a Remington 700 style action, but it I was fortunate to have the guidance & pro tips from the big man down in Georgia and quickly finished the job.
Without further a due here are a few pics of the PIG wearing lipstick! (I wish I would have taken some before pics, but most of you know what a stock Win Heavy Varmint looks like)
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